Junior Year, Session 2: The Godpooka

The first high school football game of the season was near for Hughes High. Both school and town were in full swing preparation for it. As game inched closer, Desmond took notice that the sophomore Yosemite Jones has been attempting to sabotage him.

The attempts were inept, but the intent was clear. Before Des arrived and became the star quarterback, Yosemite was the year’s assumed star. The previous star quarterback graduated last school year. And Yosemite saw Des as an usurper to what was rightfully his.

On the other side of football madness, Memphis was taking under-the-table bets on anything and everything in regards to the game, which meant the whole school knew about it. First sacks, win or loss with point spreads, and odd occurrences were just some of the bets available.

Being a reasonable satyr, Memphis went to Des to discuss the game in greater detail. Detail meant to increase profit of course.. He ask the quarterback if the Sidhe could make sure the game was won within 14 points. Des said he would for a price. The terms for the fix would be that Memphis would torment Yosemite. And thus a contract of sorts was reached between the two.

First, Memphis went to Bella for assistance. He needed help retrieving Yosemite’s class schedule. Bella demanded payment in the form of glamour. Further haggling ensued, but an agreement was not reached. Memphis indirectly inferred to her that she would be on the receiving end of his ire. He then went to the school office, where he cut a senior office worker in on some of the take if the senior provided Memphis with the Yosemite info the satyr sought.

Meanwhile, Brytta noticed something off about the lack of one of her fellow students in class. Reginald Blue was absent for the past few days. He also was the guy inside the school’s Honey Badger mascot suit, which meant the football team abused him ritually as a good luck charm. And he never, ever, missed a game.

After her English class, Brytta met with Miss Woolworth. The teacher knew not of the reason for Reggie’s absence. There was no notification or doctor’s note for it. The Eshu decided to bring this oddity up when she next met with her fellow SGAA members at lunch.

During the morning before lunch, Memphis’s torment of Yosemite was in full swing. Memphis stored cans of shaving cream in a school freezer for later use.. Most of Memphis time though was spent on Yosemite’s car. First, the satyr covered in Saran Wrap, since permanent damage to a car was bad form. Then Memphis covered the car in vaseline and honey.

Afterward in the SGAA room, Memphis asked Rook about what the troll would do to Tony that was not lethal as research on his torment of Yosemite. This made Rook a bit uncomfortable.

While meeting with fellow players throughout the day, Desmond heard concern that their lucky charm mascot was missing. Des heard about the toilet dunking and the pole ramming that were good luck rituals of the highest caliber. The quarterback told the team he would look into it.

At the SGAA lounge at lunch, Des asked Mindy if she knew anything about the missing mascot, because Des felt she was the type of person who would know. After the Mindy mentioned that the Sidhe must have known about her secret title of Godpooka, Mindy told Des that he should ask the new Eshu, for Brytta and Reggie were the best of friends in middle school. Brytta went along with Mindy and stated her own concerns about Reggie’s unexcused absences. Des asked Memphis for further help because of the secret sources the satyr obviously had.

So Memphis looked at the super no-so-secret student directory and called the Blue residence. The lady on the other end of the call denied that there was a Reggie living there. Upon checking the yellow and white pages, Memphis confirmed that the number was correct. plus the town only had one Blue household.

Then Memphis pushed Des onto Raz so the satyr could continue his campaign of terror. His next plan of attack was to replace an art piece done by Yosemite in art class with a nude of the elderly teacher. The satyr met with the anime club girl to commision the art. With the promise of bootleg anime, she agreed.

Back to the search of reggie, Des went to the office to talk to the school staff. He relayed his concerns, which in turn made them proud that the new student would take the initiative to look out for one of his classmates. They gave him Reggie’s address and number. He called but was rebuffed the same way as Memphis. Just before leaving, the office warned him about hanging out with that Memphis Raines kid.

Brytta, Des, Memphis, Raz and Rook went to Reggie’s house to get to the bottom of the mystery. The remaining SGAA went to class. Upon arriving, Brytta and Des walked to the front door and knocked. Memphis snuck around the house to peep into windows creepily. Raz and Rook observed the house for anything unusual.

Des felt something happen to his mind briefly, but managed to talk normal enough to the lady when she answered the door. According to her, there was no Reginald at the house for the twenty years that she lived there. As Brytta was about to ask something, her mind went blank, and she wandered off. After his talk was finished, Des then decided to creepily peep into windows as well. After Brytta walked a block away, her memory returned.

Raz and Rook looked over the house and noticed a cantrip of sorts covering the whole of it. Upon further inspection, the two realized it was very similar to Bella’s use of Chicanery. Raz then went to work to capture the cantrip in a bottle. Upon his second infusion cantrip attempt, he successfully removed it from the house and caught it.

Upon removal, Des knocked on the front door again. There was no answer, but the door was unlocked. The Sidhe went into the house and saw the mother was in a panic. She now remembered her son. Reggie was missing. But the mom did not remember when or how. Des calmed her with a hot drink while the others searched the house for clues.

In Reggie’s bedroom a mysterious gear was found. It was definitely chimerical and far more advanced than anything Raz has ever laid eyes on. This got his attention, to say the least. To say the most might be a bit creepy.

The group gathered back down stairs. Memphis then made an origami dog as a pyretics bunk to chase down who left the gear. The dog followed in a slow and winding trail. Eventually, the group arrived back at the school. They were led to a large grate in the school’s boiler room.

The grate was removed easily enough. Before entering, the group texted the absent SGAA members to give them a heads up on the situation. Then the trek through the tunnel began. It was a long walk. Service tunnel became stonework, then stonework became foundry. After a while, a large door with a complicated lock blocked the groups way.

The door was knocked on, and two clockwork eyes looked out through a peephole. It asked for authorization. Bullshitting was used, but the sentry clock-blocked the group. Brytta then used Naming and a psychic paper bunk to to show authorization from someone who ended up being called the Mechician. This convinced the guard, and it opened the door to allow the five-member-party in.

After entry, the clockwork guard realized his error and called for backup. Three clockwork guards in all attacked the group with clockwork rifles. This aroused Raz’s interest, so to speak. Two guards attacked and slightly hurt Rook. The other injured Brytta a bit more than that.

Desmond injured a guard first. Then Memphis used his natural awesomeness to become bait for the guards on their next attack. Raz completely disassembled one of them, taking it out commision. Brytta’s shadow pet, Sacan Ealdor, injured one. Then Rook smote the rest in a barrage five slashes. Afterward, Raz hardened Brytta with Infusion to help her with any further damage from attacks.

The group pushed forward, venturing further into the foundry. In the next room, they found Reggie strapped to an examination table. On the opposing wall was two giant hangar-like doors. Des gave a simple test to check if Reggie was being mind-controlled. When he was satisfied, he released the masochist-mascot. Upon questioning, Reginald told the five that the clockwork automata questioned him thoroughly about football rules and everything he knew about the game.

Meanwhile, Memphis used Portal Passage on the hangar doors. He pissed the outline of a door as a bunk, and it turned into a surprisingly nice doorway. When he opened it, a legion of clockwork was revealed. Among them were clockwork soldiers, tanks and ornithopters to say the least. Memphis closed the door immediately. Everyone ran back to the school, with Raz welding every door shut that he could on the way.

After returning, Reggie’s memory of his time in the foundry was obscured by the Mists. He was told that someone kidnapped him and put him in the boiler room to be hidden. Not wanting to jinx the game, Reginald ran to get to his costume so Hughes High would win the game. Des followed him shortly afterward to try to lessen the good-luck-ritual’s savagery.

The rest of the SGAA, including Mindy, was texted, and healing was given by her to those injured. Rook then texted Bella to check if a clockwork legion was part of her current plans. With the usual “What!?” response, asking Rook where he was.

Bella and the Unseelies met the SGAA minus Des at the bleachers. Desmond joined his teammates, but was unable to prevent the good luck rituals from taking place. Memphis paid some of the underclassmen to sit behind Yosemite and harass him subtly. And just before the game, Yosemite gave Des a threatening warning.

The start of the game went off with the usual excitement from the crowd. The Hughes High Honey Badgers ran onto the field, breaking through the standard paper sign. The crowd cheered even more and spirits were in full swing. Then, the opposing team came onto the field. Confusion set in as they appeared to be clockwork robots in football uniforms. The fact that regular people could see them concerned the SGAA even more.

One came to the coin toss to parley. It demanded the Immortal Eye, or the Honey Badgers would be destroyed. Des had no idea what the Dalek-sounding robot was talking about, so the coin was tossed to begin the game with Des calling the right coin state.

Flutterfeet, however informed Raz that legend was that four keys known as the Immortal Eyes could be used to unlock the last remaining gate to Arcadia. Two of the eyes were Seelie. The other two were Unseelie.

With his team confused, Des gave a rousing speech that used the fact that Reggie was already tortured to convince the team that victory was guaranteed. This magic of friendship reassured the team and lit their spirits on fire.

Memphis used ensnare on the opposing team using an epic air guitar solo as a bunk. He destroyed the team, but missed the coach. With a word from the coach, a new clockwork team appeared soon after.

For the first play, Des used Quicksilver on his teammates. The Sidhe quarterback botched. The Honey Badgers stood still as the clockwork players ran past them and scored the first touchdown of the game.

The second play almost fared much better for Des. He successfully used the Quicksilver cantrip on himself. Rook successfully used Discord 2 on Des. Bella even used a cantrip to help her current object of curiosity. To Fae eyes, it looked that Des split into 6 copies moving ultrafast. He was still tackled outright though. While this was going on, Brytta used her magics to find out the true name of the clockwork coach.

After this, Memphis decided to join the fray. He walked out onto the field in uniform, and called upon the Wyrd to take advantage of his satyr abilities. Rook joined the field shortly later, and Tony joined the field to be a dick mess with Rook.

On the second down and despite Tony, Rook protected Des long enough for the quarterback to throw the ball. Des was tackled shortly after. Memphis caught the ball and made an epic touchdown. After the touchdown, Brytta successfully used her Naming magic to turn the clockwork coach into a non-clockwork jockstrap. This hindered the opposing team’s cohesion greatly.

After the last play, Raz noticed Bella was casting another cantrip. This time, however, it was not targeting the opposing team. Raz clapped out of rhythm to mess up her clapping bunk. Brytta noticed as well and told Sacan to scare Bella a bit. The Unseelie Sidhe completed her casting just before being enveloped by the shadow-monster. She fell down the bleacher steps and inadvertently started a riot in the stands. The remaining SGAA, minus Darksire, in the stands discreetly left before the rioting got revved up too much. Anastasia and Lord Darkshire were already somewhere more private long before the rioting became an issue for the two.

The next play saw the fruition of Bella’s cantrip. One moment, Memphis was fine. Then the next all the opposing players looked exactly the same, and the sight of the ball was lost to him. On the throw from the clockwork-quarterback, Des managed to barely catch the ball. Rook gave him a completely clear path to touchdown.

After the next kickoff, Memphis used ensnare once more to destroy the enemy team. This time, because the coach was now an inanimate jockstrap, no replacement players replaced the now scattered clockwork parts.

This caused a fumble. Both Des and Yosemite went for the ball. They struggled for a few tense moments. But in the end, Yosemite barely pulled through to score. After he made the touchdown, the sophomore went through a Chrysalis.

After the explosion of Glamour, Des carried Yosemite around like he was doing a celebratory run, but he and Memphis both had words for the new Changeling. Des was cordial, but Memphis was Memphis. Rook discreetly left the field during the chaos and kept the uniform for Sam later. The whole of the town and bleachers erupted in celebration. The game would be known as the most awesome game nobody could remember. Raz would eagerly gather up the parts of the broken opponents when convenient. Most likely he later filled a bathtub and bathed in the parts, but such thoughts are better left unthought.

Yosemite was now a Sidhe from House Alill. He had a surprising amount of comfort and awareness in his new role. His true name was Yrtalien. He refrained from joining the SGAA and instead joined the Unseelie clique. Raz introduced himself to the new Sidhe cordially.

After the game, the SGAA met back in the clubroom. Raz was tasked with leading a seance for the jockstrap using the Willow Whisper cantrip. The room and windows were darkened. Candles and scarf-covered lamps were strewn around. Memphis even played gypsy-esque music on his guitar.

Raz’s cantrip was successful, and he was able to ask Mr. Jockstrap three questions. The first answer was that the Mechician was the right hand of King Ironheart. King Ironheart was the ruler of Mechopolis. And Mechopolis was in the depths of the Middle Marshes.

When asked about the King, Flutterfeet recalled some information. Ironheart ruled his city with a literal iron fist. His name was well earned. Also, Mechopolis was not too far from the Bullydale Wastes. Raz looked for John Smith to relay this information, but he had to leave a letter in the teacher’s mail when Mr. Smith was nowhere to be found. Upon further thought, the Nocker realized he most likely had the Immortal Eye that was mentioned earlier.

During the seance, Rook received a text from Bella. She was laughing that the grate-tunnel was not there and thought the SGAA was full of it. He simply responded with an indifferent message and let the matter drop.

And, when the shaving cream was finally frozen, Memphis used it in his torment of Yrtalien. Chrysalis changed nothing.